Improvement in railroad-switches



H; N.- HOPKINS. Railroad-Switch.

No. 219,475. Patented Sept. 9,1879.

N- PEI'ERS. PHDTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY N. HOPKINS, OF TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 219,475, dated September 9, 1879 application liled January 3, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, HENRY N. HOPKINS, of Taunton, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Switches; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming partof this specification.

in which- Figure l is a top-plan view, showing the application of my improvements to constitute an automatic switch and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

Similar letters of reference in the several figures denote the same parts.

My invention relates to improvements in devices for shifting and adjusting the movable rails otrailroad-switches; and it consists in the construo=ion and combination of parts which will be hereinafter described.

In the switch which I have represented in the drawings to illustrate the working of my improvements, A A represent the rails of the main track; A A, the rails of the continuation of the main track; B B, the rails of the side track; 0 G the movable switch-rails separated by blocks I) and pivoted at o, and adapted to be moved back and forth in bed, plates d d, to direct trains approaching on the main track either upon the side track or upon the continuation of the main track,-as occasion may require; and F, a guard-rail.

The devices which constitute my invention are as follows: E is a hand-lever, pivoted at h to cross-bar i of a standard, 1, at the side of the truck. A stout rod or bar, 7', connects the lower or shorter arm of this lever to the outer. end' of the switch-rails, and by moving the lever back and forth the switch rails may be adjusted to direct the trains either upon the continuation of the main track or upon the side track.

It is often desirable that the switch-rails be so adjusted as to allow trains approaching on the main track in the direction of the arrow y, Fig. 1, to pass uninterruptedly onto the continuation of the main track, and yet be capable of being temporarily shifted to accommodate trains approaching from the side track onto the main track. To accomplish this result I arrange a pair of pivoted levers or arms,

K K, in the standard I upon opposite sidesof the handdever H, and connect with said arms cords L, weighted at their lower ends,

and passing over pulleys M, located near the the siding will shift the switch r-ails to the position indicated by the dotted lines, and cause the lever to be moved to the left and raise the weight. When the train has passed the weight drops back by gravity to its former posit-ion, and thus resets the switch. To keep the movable switch-rail normally adjuteds to rail A of the main track, the lever His moved to the opposite side of the standard and connected to the other weighted lever, as will be readily understood.

Ido not claim herein the coml' inatiou of main and side trucks, pivoted switch-rails, and guard-rails, the same being shown and claimed in the patent to B. F. Farrar, No. 66,136, dated June 25, 1867; but

What I do claim is- The combination of the standard I, pivoted hand-lever H, catch or arm N, weighted levers K K, and oonnecting-rodj with the movable switch-rails, substantially as described, for the purpose specified.

HENRY N. HOPKINS.

.Witnesses:

J. M. OUsHMAN, J. O. REYNOLDS. 

